The first prize winner of the International Tropical Architecture Design Competition was an 11-storey marvel featuring hydroponics, water harvesting technology and built using recycled building materials, waste plastic and glass bottles.

A building can never really be green if the people inside it aren't. Building owners need to give their occupants a nudge in the right direction, experts said at a recent Building and Construction Authority event in Singapore.

Vancouver—the mountain-fringed, bicycle-friendly, pot-loving host of the 2010 Winter Olympics—wants to be the world’s greenest city by 2020. Here's how the city is trying to reach that goal, and reaping economic benefits along the way.